Report: Saints expected to have interest in Jimmy Graham reunion

The Saints traded tight end Jimmy Graham to the Seahawks for center Max Unger before the 2015 season, but it looks like they will have a chance to bring him back to New Orleans this offseason.

Graham has been deemed unlikely to sign a new deal with or get tagged by the Seahawks for some time and Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the two sides will indeed part ways after free agency opens on March 14. Pelissero also reports that Saints are expected to be one of “a bunch of teams” interested in landing Graham’s signature on a contract.

Graham played five years for the Saints from 2010-2014 and caught 386 passes for 4,752 yards and 51 touchdowns over that span. He missed time with a knee injury during his first year in Seattle and caught 122 passes for 1,443 yards and 16 touchdowns over the last two seasons.

Josh Hill and Michael Hoomanawanui saw the most snaps at tight end for New Orleans last season, but neither has much of a role in the passing game. Coby Fleener was signed to play that role in 2016, but suffered the fifth concussion of his career in his 11th game last season to bring his year to an end.

At the time of the trade, you reported that Graham hated living in New Orleans. I’m not sure he will come to open arms from the fans unless he gives a sincere apology and maybe an explanation as to why he said that.

As far as Brees handing the offense to the RBs, it is a situation where he didn’t have reliable WRs like years past. The 2nd best draft pick that the Saints’ ever made, Marques Colsten, retired. Defenses held they’re best receiver, Michael Thomas, in check and he was used to draw attention away from screen passes to the RBs.

xenova1 said:
March 5, 2018 at 2:47 pm
At the time of the trade, you reported that Graham hated living in New Orleans. I’m not sure he will come to open arms from the fans unless he gives a sincere apology and maybe an explanation as to why he said that.
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Ahh, the article indicated that the Saints were interested in Graham, but didn’t say whether Graham had any interest in returning to play for the Saints. If he didn’t like living in NO before, he probably isn’t going back, especially since several other teams will be interested in signing him. The Saints better look at other free agent TEs (Burton, Sefarian-Jenkins) or pick one in the draft (Gesicki Hurst, Goedert, Andrews). They may be better off long-term anyhow.

Some draft experts gave Seattle an A grade for the DRAFT when they traded their number 1 pick and pro bowl C Max Unger for Jimmy Graham. Seattle’s O line has since collapsed while an announcer recently claims that Unger is the rock in NO’s O line. Shows that some experts either don’t know what they are talking about and/or they are Seahawk fans/shills.

As a Saints fan I hope he signs somewhere else. His last season here our offense was becoming predictable in goal line and third and long situations, everybody in the stadium knew Brees was going to Graham. Aside from that, he started having too many drops, and couldn’t make a block if his life depended on it, let somebody else have him please!

omeimontis says:
Some draft experts gave Seattle an A grade for the DRAFT when they traded their number 1 pick and pro bowl C Max Unger for Jimmy Graham. Seattle’s O line has since collapsed while an announcer recently claims that Unger is the rock in NO’s O line. Shows that some experts either don’t know what they are talking about and/or they are Seahawk fans/shills.
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And yet, in the team game that is football, since that trade was made the Seahawks have won more regular season games (29-25), made the playoffs more times (2-1), played in twice as many playoff games (4-2), and won twice as many playoff games (2-1) as the Saints.
In the grand scheme, it doesn’t seem as though that trade helped either team all that significantly. It certainly didn’t make the Saints a better team than the Seahawks, as proven by the only results that realty matter.
I’m not a fan of any team in either the NFC West or the NFC South. But the bigger picture is all that really matters in a team sport, rendering the whole “who won a single trade” argument quite moot and pointless.

Some draft experts gave Seattle an A grade for the DRAFT when they traded their number 1 pick and pro bowl C Max Unger for Jimmy Graham. Seattle’s O line has since collapsed while an announcer recently claims that Unger is the rock in NO’s O line. Shows that some experts either don’t know what they are talking about and/or they are Seahawk fans/shills.
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Unger missed 2 seasons worth of starts with the Seahawks, and the stretch run of the 2nd Super Bowl season. Safe to assume he was on the downside of his career, and

Other than Gronk, Graham was the best TE in football when that deal was made. Pretty much every team in the League makes that deal. The Steelers and Pouncey being perhaps the only exception. Just an absolute no-brainer.

Maybe the Saints haven’t exactly lived up to expectations but that deal severely weakened the Seahawks ability to field an average offensive line the last few years. Saints had one of the, if not the, top o-lines last year.

And yet, in the team game that is football, since that trade was made the Seahawks have won more regular season games (29-25), made the playoffs more times (2-1), played in twice as many playoff games (4-2), and won twice as many playoff games (2-1) as the Saints.
In the grand scheme, it doesn’t seem as though that trade helped either team all that significantly. It certainly didn’t make the Saints a better team than the Seahawks, as proven by the only results that realty matter.
I’m not a fan of any team in either the NFC West or the NFC South. But the bigger picture is all that really matters in a team sport, rendering the whole “who won a single trade” argument quite moot and pointless.

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Since neither team has one a Super Bowel which is all anyone remembers or counts I would think the question would be. Right now which team is closer to winning another Super Bowl and is trending in the direction of getting better not winding down.

Maybe the Saints haven’t exactly lived up to expectations but that deal severely weakened the Seahawks ability to field an average offensive line the last few years. Saints had one of the, if not the, top o-lines last year.
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False. Bad drafting is to blame for that.

Since this trade, they’ve drafted 7 O-lineman. At the moment, only 1 of them (Ethan Pocic) looks like a starter for next year… 3 of those guys aren’t on the team!!

They’ve invested heavily in the position. Their moves simply haven’t worked out.